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Mental health disorders on rise in parents

Courtesy of mja.com.au

A unique Australian study, published in the latest issue of the Medical Journal of Australia, has found that the prevalence of mental health disorders in parents of infants rose dramatically between 1990 and 2005.

Dr Melissa O'Donnell, NHMRC Early Career Fellow at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, and her co-authors studied de-identified linked health data for all parents of infants born in WA between 1990 and 2005.

They looked at data on hospitalisations and outpatient clinic visits for mental health problems at any time before the birth of a child and in the year before a child's birth year.

"Overall, prevalence of prior mental health disorders in mothers increased, from 76 per 1000 births in 1990 to 131 per 1000 births in 2005. There was an estimated 3.7% increase per year in the odds of children being born to mothers with a prior mental health disorder", the authors wrote.

"In addition, there was an increase in prevalence of prior mental health disorders in fathers, from 56 per 1000 births in 1990 to 88 per 1000 births in 2005 (3.1% increase in odds per year)."

Substance-related disorders were the diagnostic group with the highest prevalence in both mothers and fathers, which increased from 19 per 1000 births in 1990 to 32 per 1000 births in 2005 (4.6% increase per year) in mothers and from 32 per 1000 births in 1990 to 40 per 1000 births in 2005 (1.7% increase per year) in fathers.

Among mothers, there were also large increases in adjustment and stress-related disorders and non-organic psychotic disorders.

"It has long been established that parental mental health can impact children's outcomes", the authors wrote.

"These outcomes not only relate to children's own mental health but also language development, behaviour and physical health. Social welfare agencies have reported increasing numbers of families facing complex issues, including parental mental health problems and substance use, resulting in concerns about children's wellbeing."

The study is the first in Australia to investigate the population prevalence of previous and current mental health disorders in parents, including trends over time.

"Data about adults with mental health disorders who are also parents are not routinely collected", the authors wrote.

"We aimed to fill this research gap by using mental health-related data on public and private hospital inpatient admissions and public outpatient contacts, to provide information on trends in parental mental health disorders in particular diagnostic groups."

The authors wrote that broader service availability in WA, and better data collection could be reasons for the increases.

"However, there could be a true increase in the prevalence of mental health disorders in parents", the authors wrote. "A previous study by our group showed that there had been an increase in the prevalence of babies born with neonatal withdrawal syndrome in WA, indicating increasing drug use by pregnant women. Other research has also shown increasing use of anti-depressants during pregnancy."

"This is also indicated by our data, which show increasing trends in mental health disorders relating to substance use, as well as adjustment and stress-related disorders", they wrote.

The authors state "that it is important for parents to seek treatment and support for their mental health issues to alleviate the symptoms they experience and reduce the impact their symptoms may have on their children and family. Mental health professionals and GPs also play an important role in assisting parents with their condition and discussing with families plans for respite and support when needed."